Fearless Females: Working Girl

Working girl: Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home? What did she do? Describe her occupation.

Both my grandmothers and my mother worked outside of the home. In World War II, Grandma Arvin was a Rosie the Riveter. She made airplane parts at the Bendix plant near her home in Wayne, Michigan. After the war she made a career of being an Army Officer's Wife. My Grandmother Combs was a school teacher for nearly 40 years, most of that time in kindergarten classrooms. She retired from teaching in the mid 1980s.

My mother worked for 2 years as a high school math teacher and school athletic trainer. However, after repeatedly running into sexist remarks about how "she didn't know anything because she was a woman" by the team doctor, mom went back to school. Mom retired from the US Army in 2010 as a Lt. Col and an Orthopedic Surgeon. In total she has 2 Bachelors degrees, a Masters, and her Medical Doctorate. This would be my "I told you so" gene.

*Image Library of Congress: Safe clothes for women war workers. A closeup of Eunice's new uniform reveals one of its most important safety factors: the tight-buttoning trouser ankles which prelude the possibility of a loose trouser's catching in moving machinery. Note also the sturdily built, comfortable safety shoes, with box toe which helps protect the wearer from falling objects. Bendix Aviation Plant, Brooklyn, New York